Thi'thysaer Republic
''"We are prosperous because we have learned not to argue about what a good person should be, and instead tell our constituents to focus simply on being one." ''Senator Archibald Florentine, 1722 S.V. The common trend for elvish nations is to study cultures and societies of the past and model new ones after them, using them as a baseline and then working to improve where they failed and fell apart. Thi'thysaer took their developmental cues from the Roman Republic. Such a cultural strategy has made them powerful, one of the most powerful in Charybdis in fact; few nations can compare to the Thysaerans in both economic and military might. Such power has allowed them to dominate the lion's share of Kassun, and granted them a very comfortable position of power when engaging in political negotiations with pretty much everyone from their nearby neighbors to their distant allies and rivals. The Thysaerans are divided into two simple social castes: the First and Second Class citizenry. The First Class citizens are the most powerful but the least numerous; they have the most material property to their name, the most power in voting, control the most wealth, and greater consideration is given to them in legal matters. Second Class citizens don't actually have fewer legal or economic rights, but wield less power than the First Class by having less property and money, and smaller families with less influence in politics or national industries. There's only two ways of becoming a First Class citizen- acquiring tremendous amounts of personal property and wealth, or becoming part of a First Class family. For the majority of the population, this means hoping they can one day marry into an elvish family, as all Thysaeran elves are by default First Class citizens. The other path, acquisition of sufficient holdings to warrant access to First Class citizenship, is slow and tends to take multiple generations. Only three races have had families capable of joining the First Class of their own accord instead of through marriage: the Ssilra, Halflings, and Free Goblinoids. While this social construct does cause tensions, it does not cause the same tensions as it would have in Rome. The First Class families are generally quite generous with their wealth, having long enough lifespans and 'Elvish common sense' to know that their long-term plans (and survival instincts) will easily afford them to take fair care of the Second Class. This has led to a majority of First Class families to operate under the notion that "a happy worker is a busy worker", and they tie most of their fortunes up into Thysaeran communities to provide economic stability and social contentment for the Second Class. This not only promotes the lower class people who live under the shield of the Republic to find worthwhile purpose and value to their lives, it also serves to keep them happy and unlikely to revolt against the people in charge. Some First Class families even go so far as to 'adopt' specific Second Class families who have worked with theirs for long periods of time and become patrons to them, slowly integrating that family into their own and adding to the First Class family's size and strength. The Republic keeps its politics simple, which is important when one lives in a bureaucracy. Every citizen is allowed to vote, but the votes of First Class citizens are worth four, while a Second Class citizen's vote is only worth one. People vote officials into every major public office with the exception of police and military personnel. Most public offices have terms which last for two years, with the exception of Senators who only have one year per term, but there are no limits on how many terms a Senator or any other official may serve. Each province under the Republic's banner has a number of senators based on their population counts- 1 senator for every 100,000 people. While there is no official rule against anyone running for Senate, most Senators are people from First Class families- it's generally fairly costly to run for office, and most Second Class citizens just can't afford it. Elected Senators congregate in the grandiose Central Forum building in the Republic's capital city, El'ehonsra; a 2/3ds majority vote is required to pass any and every measure, bill, or amendment introduced to the Forum. The only exception to this is when war is imminent, in which case the Senate defers to the General Tribunal, a council made up of the highest ranking personnel from all branches of the Republic's military forces. The Tribunal is usually given carte blanche to defend the Republic as it sees fit, provided it doesn't take advantage of the conflict to try and usurp power. If such an outcome is anticipated by the Senate, they have the legal power to remove any or indeed all current personnel from the Tribunal and have them replaced by a popular vote from within the military's ranks. The Republic's economy more or less relies entirely on their non-elvish population. The elves themselves, while long-lived and farsighted, are skilled in various arts including magic, but few of them have had much experience or education with regards to trading outside of their race- a failing resulting from so many centuries of total isolation. The non-elvish population as such picks up the slack and provides many inlets and outlets for trade with other national powers. It is the efforts of these non-elves that the Republic is able to trade their primary exports- all manner of spices, lumber, food, and all sorts of high quality cloths and trinkets mundane and magical- while bringing imports necessary to their survival, mostly non-magical goods, medicines, and building materials. Primary Ethnic Groups: Caucasians, Negros. Estimation of Population: 8 million First Class citizens, 22 million second class citizens. Order of Racial Commonalities: Draconids 20%, Halflings 19%, Ssilra 18%, Elves 16%, Free Goblinoids 8%, Humans 6%, Kemono 5%, Other 8%. Primary Language: Sylvan. Secondary Languages: Portugese, Italian, Javanese. Thysaeric Military Thysaeran Foreign Relations Kassun Back to Main Page